Kremlin’s decision to lift ban on delivery of surface-to-air missile system criticized by U.S., Israel
An Iranian official said he believed his country would receive a powerful air-defense system from Russia as early as this year, though Russian officials suggested the delivery could take longer, as divisions over lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for a nuclear deal persisted.
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| A man pushes a bicycle past a Russian surface-to-air missile system S-300 displayed on Suvorovskaya square in central Moscow in December. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images |
Russia for years has used Iran’s desire to buy one of its sophisticated S-300 defensive ground-to-air missile systems as a bargaining chip in negotiations over the dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program.
But with nuclear talks due to resume April 21, aiming for a final deal by June 30, the Kremlin moved Monday to lift its self-imposed ban on delivering such systems to Iran. That signaled a new era of potential defense cooperation between the two countries and showed the thorny issues the U.S. stands to face as Tehran comes in from the cold.
“I think [the S-300] will be delivered this year,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the Interfax news agency Tuesday in Moscow, where he was participating in a meeting for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. “The elimination of this issue will foster further development of our bilateral relations.”
Russian officials were vaguer about the time frame. Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said any delivery would take “some time,” citing a minimum of six months on any order. “It depends on our producers,” he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he couldn’t name a specific date.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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